"K-food that once drew long lines has swept into homes abroad" ... Dominates Taiwan's delivery market

[Financial News] #. Last August, chef Jung Ji-sun, who rose to fame through Netflix's Culinary Class Wars, opened her first overseas restaurant in Taipei. The restaurant has been well received, with all seats selling out shortly after its opening. Jung later developed a delivery-exclusive limited menu in collaboration with Taiwan's local Foodpanda delivery app. In effect, she expanded her business from an offline restaurant to delivery services.K-food content is rapidly gaining ground in Taiwan's delivery market as it penetrates the country through over-the-top (OTT) streaming services and cooking programs.
According to KATI Agricultural Products Export Information (KATI) on the 24th, an analysis of statistics from Taiwan's Foodpanda delivery app showed that Korean food delivery sales on the platform exceeded NT$600 million last year, equivalent to approximately KRW 25 billion. As of this month, sales were up 20% from the same period a year earlier.
From the beginning of this year through this month, the average monthly order frequency for Korean food deliveries exceeded 1.5 orders, up 20% from the same period a year earlier. The average order value was at least NTD 400, significantly higher than the platform-wide average in the NTD 70 range.
The five most popular items over the past two years were sundubu-jjigae, stone-pot bibimbap, beef gimbap, seasoned fried chicken and tteokbokki, in that order. Lunch orders for beef gimbap were twice as high as dinner orders, suggesting that Korean food has become part of Taiwanese consumers' everyday meals.

The influence of star chefs and television content is translating directly into actual orders. During the broadcast of Netflix's Culinary Class Wars from September through December 2024, Korean food sales on the platform rose 20% from before the show aired. In January last year, a limited-edition menu developed through a collaboration between chef Choi Hyun-seok and Foodpanda sold more than 1,000 orders on its first day.
KATI Agricultural Products Export Information (KATI) explained, "We recommend leveraging marketing strategies linked to K-content, beyond simply exporting products, as they maximize the speed at which consumers convert to purchases. Rather than attempting to deliver the taste of offline dining exactly as it is, it is important to redesign products to maintain quality during delivery, processing and distribution, including preventing discoloration and noodles from becoming soggy."
It added, "As Korean food becomes established as an everyday meal, including lunch options such as gimbap and bibimbap, rather than merely high-end dining, the export potential for product categories such as home meal replacements (HMR) is very high, making related product development necessary. A strategy of first validating target areas and time-of-day consumption patterns in Taiwan through delivery platform or e-commerce data, then expanding offline distribution networks, is expected to be effective."
[email protected] Kim Seo-yeon Reporter